<p>Sorry for typos. The I-touch “corrects” and I don’t always stop it in time.</p>
<p>No, it’s not a good idea. There are majors I would discourage my child from pursuing (I told her, only half facetiously, that she could not major in anything ending in the word “studies”), but I would never force her down a particular path.</p>
<p>No one area of study is a sure thing in terms of netting a great career or a secure job. To force a student to pursue an area in which he is neither interested nor gifted is, on the other hand, fairly likely to end in disaster.</p>
<p>I agree with bostdad2. In k-12, it is really important to push stem so kids are exposed and get a really good base education. It does need to be balanced with what their current “passion” is. My son has had a number of passions since middle school. He is really good at math, and loves programming. He plans to double major in CS & math. However, I am prepared to hear that he is changing majors. He happens to be taking intro econ classes at the local community college this year, and seems to just “get it”. It will be interesting to see if he is exposed to something new in college that sparks a new passions and interest. </p>
<p>Sent from my DROID RAZR using CC</p>
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<p>These are hard questions to answer. The advantage of being a programmer is that people care more about experience than your major, so it is possible to major in something else and get a programming job (though it’s easier for someone with a STEM major to do this.) Also, when you are working as a STEM programmer, you may want to do freelance/contract work to make money so that you can pursue your other interests (pottery, etc.). There are websites on the web which post work-for-hire projects. </p>
<p>You know, I’ve been thinking there needs to be a book for STEM majors on the different career paths they can take. For instance, what is necessary to get a McKinsey position. How many years is it ok to do whatever you want before you go to med school before it starts hurting your application. How many years off you can take at different points in your career to pursue other interests before it starts hurting your career path. I always felt like I was afraid to step away from my career at all because I had no idea what was necessary.</p>
<p>I think all students should be required to take at least one course in the History of Science. It will make for more informed citizens.</p>
<p>As a 50-something software engineer, I’m concerned about the young people who love programming and think this is a good career path. I love my job, but I believe the reason I still have it is because I am exceptionally good at it. I’ve survived multiple attempts by employers to outsource what I do. All of the routine programming jobs are offshore nowadays, in countries like India and Ukraine.</p>
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<p>I’d like to add a twist. This was my D until junior year. Her parents both have advanced degrees in STEM. She shuned math and sciences at school, writing, acting, dancing and singing. She loved calculus in her junior year and now she thinks she is a STEM kid. It may not be over yet.</p>
<p>My HS sophomore son likes math, is very good at it, and expects to major in math or some math-related subject (CS, hard sciences, engineering, or possibly economics). However, his real passion is history. He is constantly reading some history book or another and has read dozens (college level) on his own over the years. Some may condemn me for this, but I have often reminded him that it is virtually impossible to make a career out of history, and he has always accepted that, and reassured me that he does not plan to major in it, though he may minor in it. Then he reminds me that even if he did major in history, he could go to law school and become a lawyer like his old man, which I could not reasonably disapprove of. And then I tell him that as a math major he could still go to law school and do so many other things, even some involving history.</p>
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<p>Not necessarily depending on the company/hiring manager/position. </p>
<p>Sadly enough, there’s still the perception among many managers in non-tech firms who view those with STEM degrees…especially technical ones as being poor communicators/not good with people because their educations were “too narrow” and populated with “anti-socials”.*</p>
<p>Worse, many friends/acquaintances with STEM degrees have encountered enough of this prejudice in job interviews that it contributes to their feelings of “being trapped” after finding out they didn’t like/hated their career paths and/or there particular STEM field is going through a “bust cycle” and they need a job to pay the bills. </p>
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<li>This attitude seems to be most common among managers I’ve encountered at some banking/financial firms that I’ve worked for. A stereotype that IME, while having some basis in fact, only applies to the tiny minority of the most obsessive one-track minded among them. A tiny minority considering I know many hardcore engineering/CS graduates who enjoyed learning about/double majoring in non-STEM fields and feel those who disdain non-STEM fields are “closed-minded anti-intellectual idiots” in the words of one.<br></li>
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<p>While this may be harder/take more time, it is possible to double major in a STEM/non-STEM field. It’s pretty common at my private LAC and several of my more academically inclined older cousins pulled it off successfully…including one who was chem(pre-med)/sociology at Cornell and is now an MD and a violin/bio double-degree major who is either doing/about to finish his bio PhD at an HYP.</p>
<p>I think it’s important that middle schoolers be encouraged and exposed to STEM. Too many young students get into their heads that they are “not good at math or science” and then it seems to be a self fulfilling prophecy. There are so many students struggling in high school in these subjects. </p>
<p>The FBLA business club at my kids high school is putting on a career fair in a few months. All sorts of careers will be covered. My girls are excited to pull this together. Luckily, we live in a suburb where many supportive parents would love to share information about their careers. Since, there are many juniors and seniors who have no idea what they want to major in and it is very difficult to start a college search in this state, hopefully, the career fair will plant some seeds. No, parents should not “push” their kids but maybe kids will listen to what other adults have to share!</p>
<p>Plenty of parents do it, but why would it be a good idea for parents to “push” their children into anything? Encourage, sure. Expose, absolutely. Bribe? Well, I’ve tried it in the service of a number of ends. It has never worked with my kid, ever, for anything. I will say that had my late husband lived (he was a PhD chemist who solved math problems as a way to distract himself while he was dying of cancer), I imagine my D would have had a different attitude toward science and math than she has. She still might have taken after her mother and been happier to talk about James Joyce’s sense of place than puzzle over the periodic table. So it goes.</p>
<p>Just an FYI…it IS possible to transfer into engineering IF you take all of the requisite courses anyway. One of our kids started as an undeclared Arts and Sciences major BUT took calculus, chemistry, and whatever else the “engineering majors” took their freshman year…including an intro to engineering course. This kid then was able to transfer into engineering with no problems. Of course YMMV depending on the college/university.</p>
<p>Still no one should force any kid into majoring in ANY field…including STEM. And as said earlier …getting a STEM degree does not mean your kid will work in a STEM field.</p>
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<p>Given that some of the math based majors (especially math) are not particularly heavy in requirements (and math courses generally do not have time consuming labs), he should have plenty of schedule space to take history courses. Plus, as a math major, he will have sufficient math background to take the history of math course that is often offered by math departments.</p>
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<p>Good heavens, why?</p>
<p>I agree that all high school students should take high school math (preferably through precalculus) and high school biology, chemistry, and physics. But forcing students whose interests lie elsewhere to study all four of these subjects at the AP level seems cruel. They would hate it, and it would diminish their opportunities to pursue their true interests.</p>
<p>One of my kids majored in computer science, the other in economics. Both took AP math, but neither took AP biology, chemistry, or physics in high school. I do not think they missed out on anything that was important to them or their educational future.</p>
<p>“Encourage, sure. Expose, absolutely.”</p>
<p>Right. When this is done effectively, it happens when the kids are 6 or 7, and the family goes out to catch fireflies or builds a tree house together and the parents give little lessons about bugs making cold light and figuring out how many nails you need to support 30 boards. You can’t push a high schooler to like math and science.</p>
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<p>Do you work for the College Board 
I can’t imagine why EVERY student should do this.</p>
<p>We are going through this right now. D2 is only a HS freshman, but we recently had to attend a school meeting regarding course registration for next year. They threw so much information at us regarding STEM courses. She has always liked science but only astronomy, earth science, atmospheric science and such. She finds biology fascinating but does not want to study it. At one point, she wanted to be a veterinarian due to her love of animals, but now she thinks she would not like that. She currently takes an AP science course and was in Science Honors in 8th grade and has performed very well in them.</p>
<p>She also has a creative side to her and she likes to design things. She is in the crew that does the sets for the school plays. Her guidance counselor showed me her “career profile”. They tested all the kids to find their strengths and hers showed that she should be pursuing the creative route. </p>
<p>D2 is not really sure what she would do with her science interests as a job and has a couple of ideas regarding her creative interests. We are just nudging her to explore both sides as much as she can so that by senior year, she has a better idea. I still think that in these cases, they are so young to know what real life will entail I remember studying programming in college and thinking how much I loved it until I started going for internships and realized, I could not do this for the rest of my life. The actual job was not as fascinating to me as the classroom work where you wrote a lot of your own programs. I was lucky to have other options.</p>
<p>“I do think every kid should try to take the full slate of core math/science AP classes and be good at them (e.g., a 5 on the AP and an “A” in the class.) (By core math/science, I mean chem, physics, calculus, and perhaps bio. And I also think kid should take AP english and history.) However, I believe this because I think high school should be about trying to push yourself in all areas. In contrast, college should be primarily for pursuing your strengths and your interests.”</p>
<p>collegealum314 - So how do you feel about all students also taking Advanced Orchestra, Dance, AP Studio Art, AP 3-D Art, etc. in order to push themselves in “all” areas? </p>
<p>I would have liked it very much if Happykid had not graduated from her “Newsweek Top 100” high school so far behind in math that it took two full semesters of remedial work to get her up to the minimum College Math course required for graduation from the local CC. However, until someone decides to shell out for the high school math instructors that are needed for all four years and for all levels of natural mathematical ability, there will continue to be plenty of students who cannot possibly make it even to pre-Calculus before high school graduation.</p>
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<p>No, cobrat. No one thinks that just based off a resume. People think that if and when they meet that person for an interview and the person carries himself in such a way that it’s evident he’s not a good communicator. But really, no one looks at a technical education and assumes the person can’t communicate, because there are plenty of sharp people who are both good in math / science and good communicators.</p>
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<p>I don’t even feel that strongly that it’s necessary to take biology, chemistry and physics. I’ve never taken physics in my life. It’s never hurt me. My science-oriented D took physics, but my humanities-oriented S didn’t since he preferred to fill his schedule with the history, political science type of course that he loved, excelled in and really cemented his love for that area. You know, you can’t say that it’s important for a student to be “angular” and show particular aptitude for a given field, but also expect them to study all academic subjects at an AP level. Well, you can with some students - I was the well-rounded type who could have gone into math or French equally – but not with all types. Anyway, life is not a contest to pound all your learning down as fast as it can be swallowed, which is sometimes how it comes across on CC.</p>
<p>It is unrealistic to expect AP everything out of every college bound high school student. But a strong high school level preparation in all of the typical high school academic subjects is definitely what each college bound high school student should complete, in order to avoid closing doors to entire areas of study (even if just for breadth or out-of-major interest) in college.</p>
<p>Of course, the quality of math preparation in many public and private high schools is suspect, in that students who have nominally completed the college prep math courses through precalculus often do get placed into remedial precalculus math courses when they take placement tests upon entering college. A similar problem exists in English composition.</p>